Letters for Monday, January 22, 2018

Monday, January 22, 2018, 12:05 a.m.

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Visitor grateful for kindness shown at Koloa Big Save

I am writing to thank the wonderful stranger who returned my wallet and cell phone to the customer service counter at Big Save in Koloa last week. I accidentally left it behind in the cart while loading groceries into the car. Thank you sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, for your kindness.

So often, we expect things to turn out badly. Thank you for the reminder to think positively!

Thank you as well to the very helpful and understanding woman at Big Save who gave it back to me on your behalf. I am deeply grateful. Mahalo and aloha.

Marni Edmiston, Billings, Montana

Remember ‘lazy politicians’ during next election

I would like to comment on the raise of the general excise tax. For our political leaders to raise taxes when our state isbringing in billions of dollars annually is dumbfounding. Last year alone I found a quote for $1.6 billion just in tourism(spending).

If anything, our taxes should be going down. This has to be the most money Hawaii has ever seen. Our political leaders havethe responsibility to manage these large amounts of money very prudently. There should never be any room for waste.

Many of our citizens who live here are on fixed incomes. Raising taxes can have a very adverse affect on their financialsituations. As everyone knows, government money is being wasted. From undeserved raises to the county or state hiringmore employees than it needs, worse yet employees having jobs that they are being paid for but not even working at; thejanitor at the war memorial building, for instance. This is hard-earned taxpayer money being wasted.

Our representatives need to protect this waste from happening, not raise taxes. Any political official that would vote forincrease in taxes in this economic environment, in my opinion, is a “lazy politician.” Let’s remember who they are at the nextelection, shall we? If they won’t protect our hard-earned money, then let’s vote for someone who will.

Linda Bothe, Kalaheo

Local families need help getting affordable housing

Is nothing going to be done about affordable housing situation on Kauai? We have far too many people who are homeless andin desperate need for homes of their own. Now when I say “homeless” I’m not only talking about those who are forced to livein our parks, beaches, etc. I’m also referring to those who are unable to live in their own home. Those who are forced to livewith other family members. Homes that are filled with two or more families.

There are homes being built and subdivisions coming up, but not for families that have lived here for generations. No, whatwe see are homes and subdivisions being build for those who come, speculate, build and sell for more then what any localfamily can afford.

They become richer while the local families are being pushed out of the very land, island, that we call home.

Now the county has made a tax break for those who are willing to rent their homes for an affordable price, but did that help?No, it did not. Look at the prices of rentals. Sadder yet is the price of owning a home.

I know that Kauai is not the only state or county that has dealt with this problem.

There is a solution, we just need to make it happen, if not ….

Can no one see what Kauai is becoming? Aruba, Boca Raton, etc.

Choose wisely the next time you vote. Make sure it’s someone who is qualified, and will fight for and champion the localfamily. Thank you.

“There is a solution, we just need to make it happen, if not ….” Soooooooooooooo, what is the solution for “affordable” housing Mae? Please tell us.

Stop the madness! You cannot fight Supply-and-Demand. If by “affordable” you mean “subsidize”, then read Linda’s letter above on taxes. The Government’s solution is always a “tax”, because they are not business people and they are lazy. What you don’t get with elected officials is “critical thinking” to actually solve the problem.

There is an entire planet available for you to call home. There are not dragons and monsters on the Mainland or other countries.

The solution is to move to an area where there are great job opportunities and the cost of living is low. The “Solution” is to have elected officials with a backbone, that have the true interests of the people, instead of pandering in order to get re-elected. Give me an elected official that sponsors an outreach program, funded by tax dollars, to relocate families off this island to a better standard of living. For the love of God, you can always come back “home” when you have saved money and your family is set. Not that hard.

If you think homelessness = lack of housing, then you need to do more research.

Good day. If Janitors are not needed, then yes it is a waste of tax payers money. This election Colleen Hanabusa looks to make a better Hawai’i by being elected for governor. And with Kaua’i’s own former mayor Bernard p. Carvalho jr. I suppose. 2018, So the people’s choice are those two.

I think politics has taken a different turn. If the NE patriots with Tom Brady wins their sixth superbowl win, just maybe the duo of Colleen and Bernard just might be the best choice for our next leaders in Hawai’i. Count on this to happen. From one political analyst anyway. Back to you.

To their advantage, one name stands to help out to further the cause of the election. Tua Tagovailoa. Honolulu’s own. Alabama Crimson Tides the new college ncaa football division I champions. This event and exploiting it, will work for the two candidates of Colleen Hanabusa and Bernard p.Carvalho jr. People vote for who they like and who they feel best represents the status quo. Taxes will be the main topic. No doubt a speech will be heard from these two candidates.

My final thoughts on the election 2018. Choose wisely. Let us all vote. And this year, let us vote in Colleen Hanabusa and running mate Bernard p. Carvalho jr. , as the new leaders for Hawai’i. The land, the air, the water. Let us unite Hawai’i under one rule, true leadership. Colleen and Bernard. Hawai’i’s only true option for tomorrow.

The only affordable housing that will ever be available or exist is that which our politicians “subsidize” from those who pay the taxes period. Jake is right, this island is based on supply and demand. That is the reality. One good solution is “create” and encourage people to attend skilled trade schools and degrees available to those who must otherwise work two to three minimum wage jobs and still cannot afford housing and the basics of living for themselves and families.

There is just nothing affordable on Kauai…period. From electricity to food to houses to land. Same with San Francisco, New York, and Paris when it comes to real estate..

You want land, you better be ready to hui up with others and be responsible to each other. But even then minimum housing requirement are based on mainland standards and most neighors would demand of you mainland standards which may be impossible to afford for lower income local people.

We know of some Polynesian families who made a Hui and bought a property on Kauai but they are surrounded by former mainlander neighbors who are intolerant to the Polynesian standards of living with their natural way of providing for themselves with papaya, casava, vegetable gardens, fruit trees like ulu and some, pigs, sheds, trucks, and guard dogs, etc., i.e., living as much as can off their own land with quality food from nature instead of corporations. Living Nature’s way, the Polynesian way, respecting God’s Way.

Polynesians living a Polynesian lifestyle on Kauai’s part of Polynesia, yet unnaccepted by their new incoming “foreign” American neighbors with super sized homes with even bigger lawns…all the while we read about why no food availability and cost along with preparedness for disaster while our bananas alone come all the way from South America.

The early Polynesians driven off their land over the last almost 200 years, by foreigners, a fact so well written about yesterday in the Garden Island, to now now being the minorities finding their thousands of years old lifestyles in this part of Polynesia, now unacceptable to the modern status quo of the “outsider” majority.

Is it worse now than before? Will it get even more worse? Erasing the Polynesian culture that protected these islands and sustained the Polynesians themselves for over a thousand years until the arrival of the missionaries and their offspring and their imported ways. And then things changed. Has it really been for the better?

That would depend on your mind set, your culture your upbringing.

If progress is ruining Kauai (crime, drugs, 99% of the food from corporations, ag poisons on the land, and in the water, and air, and an outdated health care system with a chemical pill for every ill instead of a health care system relying on health restoring methods and way of life. Has our culture gone astray…gone bad…?

Apparently we just haven’t had people knowledgeable enough or capable of, elected to public office and appointed as authorities, to slow this modern out of control progress.

Voting for popular and tried politicians is like “missing the forest for the trees”; when we need a coalition of new elected people that will protect Kauai from its own unbridled track to the future.

Only 1 out of 7 of our elected people on Kauai voted against an increase in taxes which increase does not get at the cause of our problems but at patching the symptoms just like the current disease care system we are provided that does not address restoration of ones quality of life and health but instead attacks only the masking of symptoms.

For an example, large $$$ spent on drug treatment programs and bigger facilities…that is treating the symptom…when merely taking drug suppliers and dealers,off the streets gets to the cause but instead are apparently tolerated…all the while more and more youth are peer pressured into a drug lifestyle surrounded by social acceptance of alcohol and tobacco.

You really don’t like change do you? Democrats, grumble forever about why don’t things ever change… and then they are given the chance to vote for change and what do they do? VOTE THE SAME PEOPLE IN.. then the grumbling starts all over again. Why don’t you check out how many people in Carvalho’s staff are directly related to him or friends of the family, do absolutely nothing and make more than 50k yearly.

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